When You Destroy a Giant Cannon, Make Sure to Destroy the Canon Too
by korisnik
Summary: Five glimpses into the Kiheitai's lives after Utsuro's defeat, and one glimpse into everyone else's lives.


Happy birthday, Takasugi! I poured all my crushed hopes and dreams into this.

* * *

1.

They were walking through an abandoned samurai mansion. Takasugi didn't know what happened to its previous owners, if they perished during the whole Altana mess Utsuro created or if they left before that, moving to one of those newly built luxury high-rises. All he knew was that the price was cheap and they were stuck in Edo, at least until Bansai was done recuperating at the O-Edo General Hospital. The four of them were luckier than they deserved to be, Takasugi was well aware of that.

Matako and Takechi were walking ahead of him, bickering about the proper arrangement and size of the rooms, the holes in the shoji doors, the creaking floorboards, the unkempt yard and whether the price was worth it. There was something about the state of the house that made Takasugi think the Kiheitai would fit right in.

He stopped and the two of them instantly fell silent and turned towards him, waiting for his decision. "It's a mess," he said finally, his jaw set. "But it can be fixed. We'll take it."

2.

"We're renting a house," Shinsuke said, sitting hunched on a chair beside Bansai's hospital bed. Well, it was _a_ chair before, Bansai mused. It was Shinsuke's chair, now. Sometimes he'd let Matako or Takechi borrow it, but it was still his chair. "Our ships got wrecked and we needed a place to stay."

He reached in his pocket to get out his kiseru and then decided against it, remembering where he was. A shame. Bansai wouldn't have minded it.

"It's a little big for just the four of us, but I think we can make it a ho-" Takasugi stopped himself abruptly, avoiding Bansai's gaze. "Anyway, there's no point in telling you about it. You'll see when you get out."

3.

"They want me to help," Takasugi broke the silence while they were sitting on the outer edge of the house, the moon illuminating the garden. "Rebuild Edo, change the country, strengthen Earth's position in the universe. Start a new era."

Bansai said nothing. Takasugi's gaze was fixed on a solitary pine tree, but his mind seemed to be elsewhere.

"My mother died in childbirth, did I ever tell you that?" Takasugi looked at him with an ugly smile, the black note of bitterness creeping into his tune. "How fitting. I come into this world and the first thing I do is destroy."

The smile vanished, replaced by the uneven line of his lips firmly pressed together.

When he spoke again his voice turned quieter, and it was almost a whisper. "I don't know how to build anything, Bansai."

Bansai looked down at the shamisen in his hands and plucked a string, listening to the sound disappearing into the cool night. Bansai was already released from the hospital, but they hadn't decided what to do with their lives yet. Bansai didn't think any of them expected to make it this far. He certainly didn't. Still, he wasn't too concerned about the future. The Kiheitai promised to follow Shinsuke, no matter where they were.

"I can't say I knew how to play the shamisen when I was born," he said finally, deep in thought. "But that's the beauty of not knowing something, I believe." He turned his head to look at Takasugi. "You can learn."

4.

Bansai was woken up by a feeling of heavy weight settling onto him. It moved too slowly and clumsily to be dangerous and he decided against reaching for his sword. Instead, he opened his eyes, letting them slowly adjust to the darkness until he could clearly see Shinsuke sitting on him, naked bar for his old war jacket and still somehow managing to look imposing and dignified. He was wrong. It _was_ dangerous.

"Shinsuke? I thought you stayed to drink with your friends."

Takasugi bristled at the word but didn't correct him. "I had my fun with them. Now I'm going to have my fun with you." He grinded lightly against Bansai, a sharp smile forming on his lips. "Call me commander and do everything I tell you to do."

"Hm." Bansai reached to rest his hands on Shinsuke's hips, then looked up at him. "How is that different from usual, if I may ask?"

Takasugi's smile faltered for a moment. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and impatiently pushed Bansai's hands away. "You may not. Hands to yourself."

Takasugi took a small piece of paper imbued with tsuwasan out of his jacket pocket and put it in his mouth, then coated his fingers with the created lube. He leaned over to capture Bansai's lips with his own while he worked himself open, pulling him into a deep kiss, and Bansai could feel his lower region starting to wake up as well. Takasugi abruptly broke off the kiss, sitting up and positioning himself over Bansai, the wicked grin back on his face. He took him in his hand as he slowly sank onto him, throwing his head back with a deep sigh.

Bansai watched Shinsuke arch his back, eyes closed in ecstasy as he rocked back and forth in a steady rhythm, and he found himself wanting to caress his thighs and mess with its beat, leave wet kisses down his collarbone, press their bodies together and turn it into a heavier, faster tune. Bansai gripped the edges of his pillow, forbidden from touching Shinsuke who could be patient when he wanted to, especially if it meant someone got to suffer. Or maybe he was too caught up in his own pleasure and didn't even notice Bansai's struggle.

Bansai made up his mind. He embraced Takasugi in his arms and flipped them over.

"What are you doing?" Takasugi gripped Bansai's shoulders. "I said-" His whine was cut off by a gasp as Bansai hit just the right spot, and he dug his nails into the flesh above Bansai's shoulder blades.

"You can think of it as mutiny, if you'd like," Bansai offered, and Takasugi glared at him, but didn't complain when Bansai moved again, brushing against the same spot, his mouth tracing along Shinsuke's jaw.

He never was very good at blindly following his commander's orders.

5.

There was a huge crater in the yard, parts of Sakamoto Tatsuma's shuttle still on fire while he was laughing his way through the house, his stern-faced vice captain in tow. He wanted to visit his old friend but didn't feel like walking from the docks through the town in the summer heat, he explained with ease as he made himself comfortable, sitting down and accepting his tea. Shinsuke-sama appeared to be annoyed by the visit, constantly shrugging off Sakamoto's hand from his shoulder, but every now and then a small smile would escape him before he could hide it.

Bansai-senpai had a great deal of admiration for the Kaientai, and he seemed pleased to see the Amanto woman, Mutsu-dono apparently, engaging her in a polite conversation around terms like revenue and deferral that made Matako feel strangely inadequate. Shinsuke-sama and Sakamoto's conversation was just as impossible to follow, filled with inside jokes and unfinished sentences, and Takechi-senpai was busy transcribing a recipe for castella from a notebook Sakamoto pulled out of his pocket. ("Do you usually scribble nonsense like that in your business records?" Shinsuke-sama scoffed. "Ahaha! Ya never know what might come in handy, Takasugi. Who's the successful intergalactic merchant here? Ahahaha! ")

Matako excused herself and slipped away with her cup of tea, sitting down outside on the wooden flooring and silently gazing across the garden.

She missed it sometimes, the feeling of four of them against the world. She needed to remind herself that was pretty much the only thing she missed, and the rest of it was much better than how it used to be. There was no more sleepless nights spent worrying about Shinsuke-sama haunting the decks until morning, no more being too scared to approach him, his dark moods mirroring the black vastness of space threatening to consume them. And Shinsuke-sama said they don't owe anything to anyone and the moment they don't like it here anymore they can go wherever they want and do whatever the hell they want.

"How is life in Edo treating you?"

Matako was shaken from her reverie by the arrival of the Kaientai's vice captain. She turned to look at her. The woman, Mutsu, was leaning on a wooden post.

"I remember you from that Amenotori ship. You're a great shot."

"Thanks," Matako muttered. "You too."

"You spend all your life on various ships, and yet no matter how much you travel and how many planets you visit, there's something special about Earth. There's always something pulling you back to it. At least that's the case with our idiot captain." Mutsu fiddled with the large hat in her hands before continuing. "Earth is beautiful and its people are worth protecting, there's no doubt about it. But I haven't yet developed such strong personal attachment to it myself. When our captain goes off on a leave, gallivanting about various establishments, I mostly sit around bored and finish up whatever work we have left."

"There's nothing boring about this place!" Matako was struck with a sudden urge to defend her home planet. "I'll show you around! The next time you're on leave, I'll show you just how interesting Edo can be!"

Mutsu paused, surprised by her outburst. Suddenly she smiled, a rare, gentle kind of smile Matako didn't think she was capable of. "It's a deal. I'll come pick you up then."

She straightened up, fastened her straw hat on and turned on her heel, calling out to her captain that it's time to go and he better be ready to leave or else.

Matako was left staring after her, biting her lip.

+1

It still felt surreal to Takasugi. Zura sitting in a montsuki kimono when just yesterday they were two little boys trying to make sense of the world, before Sensei, before the war, before they swore to cut down each other on the spot. Has everything changed that much? The strange man wearing a tuxedo and a top hat over a duck suit sitting next to Takasugi really didn't help to make the situation feel more real. Suddenly, Gintoki leaned into him and whispered, "Did you know she was a widow?" and Takasugi had to stifle a laugh of disbelief. Maybe nothing's changed after all.

Once Zura officially stopped being a terrorist, he couldn't live like he used to anymore, constantly changing hiding places across Edo, and he was forced to settle as well, accepting the invitation to move into Ikumatsu's ramen shop. At the time, Takasugi considered Zura's decision to move into a ramen shop just another one of his peculiarities, like hanging out with a duck man or making onigiri you're not supposed to eat. Obviously, there were some things he missed out on over the years. Takasugi met Ikumatsu a few times since. She had a sharp tongue and eyed him with distrust. He liked her.

There were also a couple of Shinsengumi present at the wedding. The Kiheitai's policy in this strange new era of cohabitation was to avoid them whenever possible, and the Shinsengumi seemed to have the same idea. It suited both sides just fine.

Gintoki's brat #1 was exceptionally talented at wheedling money out of Tatsuma and Takasugi was really hoping Gintoki's brat #2 wasn't currently doing the same thing to Bansai. He looked across the room where he was explaining something animatedly to him. Bansai looked really good in a kimono, Takasugi noted objectively. Matako was wearing a crimson dress and Takasugi didn't miss that it was the same shade of red as the tie of Kaientai's vice captain's suit. Takechi was stoically wiping tears from the corners of his eyes, deeply moved by Zura's former jouishishi's rowdy speeches.

Zura caught Takasugi's eye and smiled. He was nagging him a lot lately, preaching from his high horse to watch his step and that he's still on a trial run, like he wasn't an ex-terrorist himself. It was as if he wanted to catch up on all the years he couldn't do it.

"He'd be proud, don't you think?" Gintoki said quietly. "Of his little samurai."

"Yeah," Takasugi said after a beat. It hurt to think about it, but it was a dull kind of hurt, not the kind that would keep him awake at nights anymore. They buried Sensei's body next to Oboro back home, on the school grounds. Takasugi waited until he was alone in front of his grave, then sat down on the ground and started telling stories about his Kiheitai. He promised Sensei he'll be fine now, because he has people who can help him carry his pain. Takasugi looked at Gintoki and muttered, "Especially of you. You only asked about the cake four times. A real progress."

"Hey, that's a good point." Gintoki turned towards Zura and mock whispered above Takasugi's head. "Zura, when's the cake coming?"

"How many times do I have to repeat myself," Zura snapped, "it's not Zura, it's Katsura!"

"You know," Ikumatsu joined the conversation with a playful smile, "I don't mind being called Zura instead of Katsura."

"No, Ikumatsu-dono!" Zura let out a horrified screech. "You can't be Zura! I'm Zura! I mean, I'm not Zura, I'm Katsura! What I'm trying to say is-"

Takasugi wondered what sort of future a bunch of samurai like this could lead the country to. A faint smile appeared on his lips. He was looking forward to seeing it.

* * *

Tsuwasan was a white powder which was used as lube in Edo period. It was made from different ingredients, but usually something like egg whites, arrowroot starch, and a type of seaweed from which glue was made. They'd glue it on pieces of paper and sell them and then you'd put the paper in your mouth to dissolve the glue and when you'd mix it with saliva you'd get lube. I'm not 100% sure how exactly all that looked like, but I think I got the general gist of it. I thought it'd be convenient here since you can carry it in your pocket. I assume Takasugi has pockets somewhere in his jacket, who goes to war in a jacket without pockets?

There's a Kaientai scroll, I think at the Kyoto National Museum, with all sorts of things written on it, including a castella recipe. You can see the recipe here. 2013/01/20/bakumatsu-castella/

I headcanon Shinpachi not yet knowing Bansai is Tsunpo at this point, so he doesn't know who exactly he's spreading the Otsuu gospel to.

All comments/criticsms/grammar corrections/etc are welcome.


End file.
